


Cat-shaped Robots; A guide to Programming and Operating. And Endless Debugging. By Reeve Tuesti

by sanctum_c



Series: Cat-shaped Robots; A guide to Programming and Operating [1]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Cats, Computer Programming, Gen, Humor, Humorous Ending, Shinra Company
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25614049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: Reeve should be doing something else while the upload trundled on, but concentrating on anything else – including actual work expected in his position – was near impossible.This was a big moment.A culmination of so much; creating the robotics, creating the interface, controls. Walking motions, balance, the tiny cameras in the cat’s eyes – all complex but doable. He could control his robotic creation with a deft, almost unnoticeable touch via remote. With much practice came experience and skill in gauging distances and the speed of the robot under his direct control. He was pretty perfect at guiding Cait Sith now – if only he could fully devote his time to operating the cat.The original plan was for Reeve to operate Cait Sith directly. This was not tenable given all the expectations of his normal work. All seemed lost until he learned of a division with Shinra experimenting with artificial intelligence. Shame something seems to have gone badly wrong when applied to Reeve's robot.
Series: Cat-shaped Robots; A guide to Programming and Operating [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1879846
Comments: 23
Kudos: 41
Collections: FF7 Fanworks Exchange '20





	Cat-shaped Robots; A guide to Programming and Operating. And Endless Debugging. By Reeve Tuesti

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darkJ3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkJ3/gifts).



> Written for the prompt 'Cait Sith is malfunctioning. Instead of intelligence, he keeps bringing Reeve more cats. Set anytime, when Reeve is in Shinra or when he leads the WRO. Anyone else can be included. Fic or Art.'

Cait Sith lay inert upon Reeve’s desk, a thick cable running from the concealed connector on the robot’s back to the serial port of his computer.

Reeve should be doing something else while the upload trundled on, but concentrating on anything else – including actual work expected in his position – was near impossible.

This was a big moment.

A culmination of so much; creating the robotics, creating the interface, controls. Walking motions, balance, the tiny cameras in the cat’s eyes – all complex but doable. He could control his robotic creation with a deft, almost unnoticeable touch via remote. With much practice came experience and skill in gauging distances and the speed of the robot under his direct control. He was pretty perfect at guiding Cait Sith now – if only he could fully devote his time to operating the cat.

But he could only delay day to day work for so long. Planning reports, why the Neo Midgar plans still had not transferred from document storage or where the cost break down analysis of the absurd project was. This on top of analysis for inevitable wear and tear damage to the plates and salt-air maintenance for Junon. Reports were essential and if he wanted to continue drawing salary he needed to do some work.

The latter Junon responsibility only fell to him now after the President lost his patience with Reeve’s counterpart at the company’s second city. Now Reeve was responsible for two nightmarish split level cities. Two sets of plates, four populations; one set literally floating above the other.

Too much workload and, as such, no time to put Cait Sith to use as a remote surveillance tool.

Something he had no business getting into. Rumours loved to make out the Turks were the best at this kind of thing, but said rumours circulated amongst the lower floors or the more knowledgeable members of the public. Few knew the HR department was notoriously chaotic and had managed to fail in recapturing one of the science division’s prizes despite fourteen years of effort and the subject’s location remaining something of an open secret.

Madness.

He would show them up, he would learn all the secrets of Shinra. Here any leverage was vital in advancing, or more precisely getting the President to pass a helpful budget. At times Reeve suspected he only lasted this long because no one else wanted his job. Best not to trust to faith though – and as much as he was part of the executive board, he was not at the top.

Despite his best intentions the struggle in balancing work-place concerns and the need for direct control over the robot stymied his attempts to dig any deeper or advance any further.

Until a chance comment on a date.

“So, Makoto-“ Reeve effected a hopefully attractive smile as he took his seat in the restaurant. “What do you do in Shinra?” The same line used so many times – and always important given the length and breadth of the company and its myriad interests and to find a new foothold in the forever shifting terrain of Shinra’s power structures.

“I work in warfare automata.”

Curious; one of Heidegger’s divisions and not one he knew much about. Makoto as a romantic prospect was one a while in developing; he had noted the woman in the canteen regularly. Often with stacks of paper pads, each crammed with text. Text she hid if anyone came too close. “Something to do with weapons research then?”

Makoto sipped her water, eyeing him carefully. “Yeah.” She nodded at him. “You’re pretty well informed.”

At the top, any edge was essential in trying to fend off unwanted interference from the other execs all vying to grow their empires. And yet somehow the others – except maybe Hojo – had farmed their menial work out to subordinates. “I take pride in my work. And the company.” Best not be too clear on his ambitions. Word spread easily; already there would be some debate about this meal. He glanced at the menu; not as if he was going to choose anything new this time. “But I guess your work is too classified to discuss?”

Another smile. “Most of it is. But not all.” Her smile diminished. “I imagine yours is similar in- What department are you in?”

“City planning.”

She relaxed, posture shifting, ice broken, Reeve designated harmless and not bright enough to grasp her work. What ambitions could someone in city planning possibly have? A bad assumption easily used to cloak interests. “I do a lot of coding for a project named Air Buster.”

“Air Buster?”

“Yeah, terrible code name.” A glance to her menu.

Terrible or not, it rang a few distant bells. Heidegger was notoriously secretive with his projects until unveiling; seemingly forever worried someone else would steal his thunder. As if anyone else could fund such an array of under-performing projects and to whom President Shinra would grant any resource. Air Buster came up a few times in documents proposed as one of Heidegger’s many replacements for SOLDIER. While the members of the group fell under his command – and more so after Sephiroth’s demise – it seemed Hojo’s inextricable position in their creation still somehow rankled Heidegger.

After the infamous death five years prior, the elite group while theoretically still capable, seemed to stagnate and lose competency. Heidegger had little interest in them, and not one member of the division began to approach the fame and skills of Sephiroth. Robotics advanced ever since.

“If you don’t mind; what kind of coding are you doing? Control systems?”

She cut her reply off when the waiter came to take their order. “Control systems coding is-“ She gestured idly. “-a bit too simplistic.” A frown and a glance around; Makoto lowered her voice. “Control systems are fine, but you double up resources. The current push is for autonomy. You, know, self-directing machines. Thinking machines.” A wider smile. “Not easy, but we’re getting there.”

And the idea slotted right into place.

Cait Sith could be a dual-purpose creation. Allow Reeve to take control when needed – and the rest of the time run through a thinking-machine routine. Some cover behaviour perhaps or maybe he could assign it missions and allow it to operate as it saw fit. This was – of course – a complex topic. Makoto seemed to appreciate him quizzing her about her role, but he took care not to press too hard in certain areas. It would not do for Heidegger to learn of his interest.

The evening ending amicably, though the significance of an invitation of coffee from Makoto came far too late – Reeve’s head too full of possibility and he turned her down flatly. Stupid. But-

The daunting complexity of the idea revealed itself the next day. Thinking machine from first precepts was difficult and crafting something purely within the context of computer memory was tricky enough to say nothing of dealing with external inputs. If he wanted this capability for Cait Sith fast, there was something close already in existence.

And only one way of getting hold of it.

Makoto did not expect his call; declining coffee was a pretty clear rebuff. But Reeve turned on his charm and scored another date. Scored a chance to get hold of her keycard. A terrible, terrible plan on his part, but he needed the code and no one would ever know. And he needed a way through all those levels of security. Coffee lead to breakfast and the rapid realisation Makoto was perfectly pleasant, but they made a poor couple.

He let the relationship fizzle after as long a delay as he felt able to justify, now more concerned with making sense of the Air Buster code. Not quick either, requiring the removal of references to a dizzying array of weapons systems and leaving in place the various target and threat detection systems. The development work wound up burning through a lot of Reeve’s credit within the company. Reports put off and increasingly late, work simply not done or pushed back as late as possible.

He was so close, so endlessly close. And the results so encouraging.

The first few tests went fine; running Cait Sith through with him in control and repeating the test with the programming engaged. So many bugs to figure out. Visual processing, audio processing, navigation. Hundreds of tests, tiny alterations and repeating the experiments. Sending Cait Sith scuttling around his office to retrieve objects. Expanding the robot’s lexicon. Speech recognition and simulation. Getting the robot’s speech to match the accented version he would use with it.

On and on. But with every bug, every fix and every re-test, success seemed closer. The plan would work; Cait Sith would be a perfect spy.

More tests; Cait Sith scurrying out of sight around the building. Venturing down passage-ways, avoiding other Shinra workers as it went. Reeve stole stationary from a cupboard two floors down. Sent the robot to steal Reno’s jacket. Smuggled Hojo’s astonishingly unappetising noodle lunch out of his secure lab facility a few floors higher. All successful and not one incident traced back to Reeve.

It did however leave him with the slight issue of two hundred unnecessary pencils, a suit jacket in the wrong size and whatever the hell was in the plastic tub he threw into the canteen garbage.

Now a big test. See how Cait Sith coped out in the wider Midgar.

The computer beeped. The upload was complete and Cait Sith powered back up. Good.

“Hi Cait Sith.”

“Hi.” The cat chirped, cocking its head to one side.

Reeve studied the remote; on screen he loomed, massive and towering over the robot. “Okay. I want you to sneak out of the building – avoiding detection – and-“ Damn. What to get the practice run to retrieve? To be sure of where anything was, the robot would need to go and retrieve something specific. It had coding for shops and the general concept of currency, but this was a stickier area of the code. Also petty theft was not something he wanted to be responsible for. But a test. A reckless test, but better try and see how it coped.

Reeve fished in his wallet for a fifty gil note. More than enough, but- “-take this. Go to the hypermarket and get me a Mako Bar. Do not be seen and leave the money behind as payment.”

The cat nodded, taking the proffered note. It pivoted smoothly and made a running leap to the door and pulled the handle down. A scan either way down the hall and Cait Sith slipped out. Good. Now-

His desk phone rang. “Yes?” Every time was the fear it would be Makoto or Heidegger or the President wanting a quiet word about why he entered the Air Buster division after hours and made a copy of the project. Always a relief until the next time his phone rang and prompted a new skip of his heartbeat.

“Sorry for disturbing you Sir.” His assistant. “The President has called an emergency meeting. You’re needed in the conference room.”

Some relief, but now a new nuisance: no way to keep an eye on Cait Sith’s progress. “I’ll- I’ll be right there.”

Reeve took another glance at the monitor. Really he should halt the test now and force Cait Sith to turn back. But the robot had made it into the stairwell and was scurrying down the stairs. Still a good test. What was the worst outcome? The robot’s programming mandated it get out of sight and avoid capture. He let it run, running down the same corridor to the lifts.

Little time to check the remote after. Too involved in the so-called emergecny meeting. Nothing so urgent; more a million cost analysis questions. And a whole load of queries about Junon’s design and the current transport links.

The meeting took hours and Reeve resisted checking the remote until he was secure in his office again. Ultimately unnecessary; Cait Sith perched on his desk beside his computer. The test had worked. Excellent. “So you made it back okay?”

“Yep. And I got you a Mako Bar!” Cait Sith chirped.

Reeve blinked. “Where is it?” The chocolate bar was not beside Cait Sith – nor was it holding the money.

Cait Sith pointed to the other side of the desk. “On your chair.”

Strange. Must be a bug- Reeve stopped. A ginger tabby lay curled up on his chair. “What... What is this?”

“Mako Bar.” The robot actually sounded pleased with itself. Reeve sighed.


End file.
